Cat's Paws
by TheZorker
Summary: When Catwoman has stumbled on activated magical statues, there's only one person the Justice League can send in to right the disaster. Someone already a cat. Sequel to Enforced Heroics
1. Chapter 1

I hated this part.

Just because you'd been born with superpowers, or have been an infected by an exobyte, didn't mean you were invulnerable. Superman is the exception. Not the rule. Even under the fur I'd been 'gifted' by an exobyte, there was skin. Cut the skin, and I'd bleed. Bleed me enough, and I would die. Healing power did not go on forever.

I'd been hired by the Justice League in public relations. In this case, my job was to write obituaries for those who had died in the line of duties. Local papers, the Justice League newsletter, that kind of thing. At least it wasn't my job to tell the next of kin. Many of those didn't even know the fallen had taken up heroics.

I don't think I could have handled that.

"She was quick with a joke, quick to volunteer in case of an emergency alert..." I had to stop, wiping my eyes. There were a lot of members in the Justice League now. There were a lot of people I didn't know.

This one I did. I simply couldn't finish. She was one of the ones who had practiced with me in Diana's class. I rubbed my eyes, clearing the tears. I was interrupted by a beep on my communicator watch. (That still sounds weird to say, like I was part of CONTROL or something.)

I picked it up, trying to remember how to activate it. I took me a few seconds, but I managed it.

"Took long enough," came the voice on the other side.

"Batman," I said, biting my tongue. "I was working on an obituary. I apologize,"

"Ah," there was a moment of actual apologetic silence. "I need your help,"

I swallowed. I wasn't high on the priority list. Wait. What had he said. "You?" I asked, "Not the league?"

"Selena Kyle has contacted me. There's been an incident at the Gotham University Warehouse, and she's asked for help. I need it to be you."  
"Me?" I asked. "Why?"

There was another pause. "I don't have time to explain," He said. There was the sound of footsteps in the background. "Trust me. Go." The communicator winked out. The address remained.

For the record, I do not really like Batman.

I saved the draft, then climbed down the stairs to my new car. I plugged the address into the GPS system Sheri had got me last Christmas, and began the drive to Gotham. It was late enough in the evening that traffic was light. I made it up the tollway in about twenty minutes, from there, another twenty into Gotham proper.

I parked in an all night parking tower, and began making my way to the warehouse.

For the record, I've been practicing with both a grappling hook and a whip. I've gotten good at the whip as a weapon, but using it as a mode of transportation was still beyond me. I jogged.

When I got to it, the door was locked. I could hear movement from inside. I could also smell smoke.

Smoke makes it a lot easier to justify breaking down the door. There a stairwell, completely blocked by fallen debris. I could hear someone calling at me from beyond. "Hey! Help!"

I swallowed. There was an odd feeling in the air, something was making my fur stand on end. I looked around. The walls had been weakened by the falling debris, and I began to make my way through it.

I dug through in an almost horseshoe like pattern, back into the main tunnel. There had to be more to it, this was almost too easy. I couldn't take time to figure that out, though. I was looking for the fire, and for the person that was calling for help.

Which meant the tiger completely blindsided me.

I say tiger, because that's what I thought it was. But the tiger was just as human as I was. It pounced at me, I could feel the claws digging into my skin. There was a lack of human intelligence in the eyes. It had knocked me on the back. Completely by instinct, I kicked up, throwing the cat-man into the opposite wall.

It snarled in pain, and bounded back toward me.

I was ready this time. I hadn't had three months of regular martial arts training with Diana for nothing. I met his charge with a punch to the face and, while he staggered, followed up with a knee to the upper chest.

This put the tiger thing on the ground, staring up at me. He had the wind knocked out of him, but wasn't unconscious. I corrected that with a blow to the chin.

I got the first one down just in time to see two more bearing down on me.

Awesome.

I had a moment to see them in a better light. They were, essentially, male versions of me. They were built along human lines, but featured a torso covered with tiger striped fur. The only real difference was the face, which was much more feline looking than my own.

I didn't like the two to one odds that were coming my way. So I sped one of them up. Remember how I said I'd been practicing with a whip? I wish I could say I expertly lassoed one of them and yanked them towards me. It'd be more accurate to say I managed to trip it and it stumbled towards me.

This left me plenty of opportunity to strike the first blow. I was much more attuned to my body than I had been. I could feel my adrenaline levels surging already, and if needed. I could push it even higher.

There was a savagery in their attacks that I was unable, or perhaps unwilling, to match. I didn't have to. These were clearly unthinking brutes, and I could out maneuver and out think them. I was light enough on my feet to make sure that they couldn't corner me. It took a few shots to put the first one down, but I could do that. Going one on one with the one that was left was relatively easy.

Still had to catch my breath afterward. My shoulder was bleeding. I don't remember how it happened. Probably some of their claws (another difference) caught flesh. I put my own hand on it and focused for a moment. I could feel the skin regrowing, knitting itself back together. It didn't reduce me to the point of exhaustion that it used to. Still was tiring.

As I moved forward, now wary for any other attackers, I could feel the strange aura fading. My fur settled down. I pushed my way forward into what seemed to be the main receiving area. I could see four large cat statues. One clearly was a lion, one a tiger, the other two were a little less distinct. Maybe panthers, or cougars.

They all were crafted from what appeared to be marble, and they looked incredibly lifelike. The one flaw was their eyes. They looked to have socket style holes where eyes, probably jewels, should have been.

In the middle of all this was Catwoman – Selena Kyle. She looked me up and down, then released a quiet snicker. "Ah, you're the one Batman sent?" She asked.

I nodded. Catwoman was a lithe acrobatic woman. I'd seen her on news reports a couple of times. She was wearing a black leather, skintight, catsuit. It looked insanely uncomfortable. Infrared goggles sat on her forehead as she studied me. "What happened here?" I asked.

"Some kind of mystic relics," she said, indicating the statues in front of her. "They've started turning all ordinary people into cats."

I blinked. "Why didn't it effect..." I scratched my initial thought. It couldn't effect me. I was already a cat. So that's why Batman chose me for the role.

Catwoman grinned at me.

"Why didn't you change?" I asked.

"Force of will, I think. I've gone through being a cat once," she cleared her throat. "And I think we're in kind of the eye of the mystical hurricane."

"Well, all right," I told her. "So how to we stop this?"

"There were some powerful creatures released by the statues. They took the diamond eyes and fled. I think if we put the eyes back in the statues, we'll seal the evil back in the can."

Either Catwoman had been through this too many times, or I'd played too many video games. It sounded altogether too logical. "Then let's go. I could use the help."

"I don't dare. If I'm out there too long, I think I'd change just like the rest of them. Then I'd be no use to try to put an end to it." Her voice was serious. She believed this. "I need a cats paw." At least she was honest about it. "Unless you want Gotham to become a wild kingdom..."

"I've got it. I've got it.. Open the door... and I'll get started."

* * *

_In memory of Diabolic Peach _


	2. Chapter 2

Beyond the gate, there were more tiger-men.

A dozen of them.

Outstanding.

I'd proven that I could take one of them at a time without a problem. Two would be a bit more interesting, but I could do it.

I did not want to try going for three. The prize was not going to be a quick reload. It might cost me my life. Or my mind, which might actually be worse. This part of the warehouse was dominated by boxes and crates. I thought for a second and looked at one stack. They were stacked in a sensible way, larger heavier boxes toward the bottom, smaller ones at the top. So I took to climbing them.

I couldn't go all the way up, the ones on top wouldn't support my weight. But I was far enough up that I could remain out of sight of anyone looking at eye level.

I fished around in the pockets of the Ghi that doubled as my superhero uniform, coming up with some coins. (As a brief aside, Sheri had actually received commissions from other exobyte infused heroes. I'm quite amazed with some of the things she's come up with. Her dream of being Edna Mode has come to reality!)

I tossed the coins against the nearby wall. The gave out a large clinking noise when they hit it. One of the tiger-folk came to investigate it. As soon as it was out of line of sight of any of the others, I did what any self respecting cat would do. I put my paws out and pounced. I grabbed my target around the shoulders and pulled it down. I stuffed my own paw over it's mouth muffling any noise it would try to make.

Or at least I tried to. It let out a roar that echoed through the chamber, only to be silenced by a firm strike of my fist to the nose. Another pop, and the thing was out like a light. I was ready to bolt the moment I saw a swarm of them coming.

But they never came.

After almost a minute, I looked around the corner. The rest of them were still kind of wandering around the large open area.

Whatever magic was affecting the form was clearly addling their brain.

On the other hand, while I was staring two of them spotted me and headed towards my position. I backed up and made ready to sucker punch the first one that came around the corner.

WHAM.

There must have been some kind of battle going on in the mind. The first two I had fought at the entrance had seemed more alert and ready for battle than anything I was facing here. Once they got into range, the first knee into their face manged to knock one down, allowing me to fire rapid fire punches into the other to knock one out. The second dropped after another flurry.

This thinned them out nicely, and the remaining eight or so still showed no signs of understanding that there was an assailant. I was feeling a bit braver now. The creatures had the strength to do some serious damage, but they had no skill.

I was nothing if not cautious, but I slowly made my way around the room. As I went, I got the attention of one of them at a time, putting each one down. Eventually. I made it to the only exit. It was a small hallway. I was confident and even sped up towards the far end.

For the second time this evening, I was blindsided by a giant feline-humanoid. This one was a pitch black panther. His claws raked my shoulder, and blood matted my fur. I yowled in pain, spinning instinctively and lashing out. The panther wasn't as strong as the tigers had been, but he did have the skill as he dodged my reflexive counter attack.

I forced myself to reclaim to my thought, focus on using energy to knit my shoulder back together. After the panther had exposed itself, it was a lot more cautious. This was good. If it had immediately followed up, I think it might have been fatal. Instead, I feinted, and it bit on my jab. I grabbed its arm on the counter attack and pulled it forward. From there, I landed a kick into its chest, knocking the wind out of it.

One last hard punch to the head knocked it out.

He was still breathing though, I checked. I let out a sigh of relief. I wasn't sure if they were people who'd been transformed by the magical energy of the statues, or some sort of magical prisoner that had been trapped by them, but it didn't matter. I still did not enjoy causing pain.

I fight because I have to, not because I enjoy it.

I'm no killer.

The second room wasn't as big, but was laid out similar to the first one. Complete with patrolling tiger-folk.

Score.

They weren't really any harder to take out, though. I didn't want them waking up, though, so I moved quickly. It was like some kind of weird stealth game.

Anyway.

I found the boss at the end of the third room.

Boss?

I swear. It was like something out of a _Legend of Zelda_ game. It was about two times as tall as I was, and at least three times as heavy. Selena could probably have heard it jump to the floor from the upper level of the warehouse room. It was like a tiger man. On titan. Something sparkled around its neck.

This was going to go so well.

I wasted to no time. He was stronger than me, so a straight up fight was going to be a joke. I threw a quick one two and immediately rolled out of the way.

He didn't even try to counter. He simply mocked me, "A kitten could do better."

If he was trying to get me to lose my cool and come at him, he had the wrong cat. I responded by hurling a small box of something. Thankfully, not a fragile something, it hit him with a small *thump*. Then it was on. If he hit me once, well, I might survive it. If he hit me twice...

He'd primarily play the waiting game, knowing I would have to come to him. There was only so many things I could throw.

I would dart in (or jump in with a kick), try to land a few blows and then dart away again. It was a reasonable strategy, if not a particularly effective one. Unlike the others, this guy knew how to **be **hurt. I mean, it was obvious he felt each blow. He flinched from them, but the combined impact wasn't having the toll I'd hoped for.

So, when he finally laid a huge heavy paw on me, I went flying. I managed to turn my head and avoid cracking my face and skull on the stone wall. Then I slumped to the ground, dazed.

"So funny," he said. "You think you have claws?"

I gave him a dazed look. I did have claws. I kept them manicured so they didn't scratch my furniture when I just wanted to watch TV. Sadly, I did not have retractable claws. My hands were still too human for that.

He thudded towards me. I had to focus, I had to, or it was going to be all over. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the energies I'd been teaching myself to use. Then my concentration was shattered by him grabbing me by the scruff of the neck.

He shook me.

It hurt.

I opened my eyes. I could see the thing laughing at me. I could also see the necklace it wore, with two yellow gems on it. I'm sure there's a more technical name, but I was in a lot of pain. So I did the only thing that I could think of that might have an impact.

I reached up, managed to get the necklace between my fingers, and pulled. There was a snap, and the necklace came off in my hand. The gemstones remain fixed, attached by some unknown method.

My eyes went wide in shock. There was an energy in those gems that ran through my body like an electric current. This was Power with a capital P. It felt electrifying. He screamed in rage and... fear?

He shook me again. I held onto my consciousness and that necklace. I could feel myself tapping into it. It felt... well, wrong. I can't explain it. It wanted to consume me, to make me part of it. I had to mentally fight it, to keep control of that power and control of myself.

Sorry. It's not the best explanation. Even now, I'm not quite sure what was really going on.

After a few moments though, the large tiger beast was not nearly as strong as it had been, and disconcerted on top of it. It tried to snatch the necklace back, but had to let go of my neck to do it. I managed to fight myself free, still feeling the tainted energy powering my body. I stuffed the necklace into my uniform and returned to the fight.

I didn't really want to fight, but if any of those other tigers had decided to cold cock me with Tony the Titan Tiger chasing me, it wouldn't be a fair fight.

Still, the longer we went, the slower he got and the more confident I felt. Finally with an uppercut, I laid him out.

I panted for a moment, then took off back the way I'd come. As I came back into the center area, Catwoman locked the gate behind me. After catching my breath, I pulled out the necklace. I finally figured out the velcro-ish way that the gems were attached. Together, Selena and I managed to detach them and place them into the tiger statue.

I could feel the energy in the area diminish immediately.

"One down, three left," Selena told me.

"I'm going to need another minute or two. Wave one almost killed me," I told her.

She looked at me. There was more warmth in her eyes than in Batman's. "Take as much time as you dare. I just think the clock's ticking."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Wave two.

I had to think about it for a second. Tigers and Panthers were both jungle creatures, right? Now there were Cheetahs.

The entry way to the area the was filled with more patrolling cat-a-likes. This time, they had the yellow spotted fur of a Cheetah. The villain world already had one of those, didn't they? What did they need with another few dozen?

I had to get back to work. It was hard to tell in the room with the statues, but once out of there, I could feel the energy building again. I'd delayed whatever crescendo it had been building to, but I hadn't stopped it.

Thus: Cheetahs.

It managed to con the first two back into the statue room. Selena helped me take those two out. Good grief they were _fast_. But they didn't have the strength, or the endurance, of the tigers I'd previously faced.

That meant I had to play the waiting game. I needed them to come to me. So, I put my back to a wall and did that. It took me a few tries to get the first hit timed right, but since they never threw more than one flurry or two of their own, I never was in any real danger.

Thank the powers, I'd practiced with my own health powers, though. I was mentally fatigued, if physically healthy when I finally managed to proceed to the next thing this forsaken warehouse was ready to throw at me.

Pipes.

I kid you not. The only way I had to proceed (as I didn't think the cheetahs had clawed their way through metal gates) was down into a set of large metal pipes. I could smell the natural gas. It was strong, and in the quantities I was smelling it, dangerous. It was the edge of the magical energy, too.

I was still surprised to see the man in the yellow hazmat suit. I could see his apprehension, even through the suit. He visibly flinched as a I dropped down, and was about to try hiding when I spoke. "I'm not with them," I said. "I'm Nidalee, from the Justice League." I could see his shoulders slump in relief.

"Oh. Oh... good. Are you here to help me fix the pipes? This giant cat broke them further on his way through here. It's self sealed on the other end. You're going to close off the valves to stop the gas flow on this side. That'll get the main pipe open again."

I stared at him. "You have GOT to be kidding me."

He shook his head.

Fine. I didn't see that I had any choice in the matter.

If the cats before were defending their new home, these guys just wanted to race. I think they could get in and out fast enough that they didn't suffer any ill effects.

They simply ran over me. I think they were trying to keep me in the gas long enough that I suffocated. If they kept me down long enough, I would.

I had to use every trick I'd learned to dodge them. I rolled. I flattened myself against the wall. I grappled the ceiling. I could not go down. If I went down, I was dead. I wasn't going to die in some absurd sewer beneath the warehouse of a bloody museum! Wasn't on my to do list.

The only moments of respite I had was the sealing of each valve. Even then I got ambushed by a panther. One on one, there wasn't much of a threat. But I was working against the clock. I could feel my head getting woozy.

Had to push on. The gas was overwhelming.

I slammed the valve and charged through the now open portal. The clean, stale air was fantastic. I took a minute to catch my breath. Then looked up at the room. I was back in the museum. And there was a giant cheetah man standing on a ledge on the far end. He pointed at me and laughed.

Great. Another one?

He jumped down, and laughed. then sped towards me, and I caught the glimpse of yellow gemstones on a necklace.

All right. I was going to need a plan.

Step one: Get necklace of power away from Super Cheetah. Step two: Do not die in the execution of step one.

I need a better plan.

To my surprise, he was executing the same hit and run tactic of his smaller lookalikes. After the first flurry, I established he did not have the same killer strength of the giant tiger I'd fought earlier. He was much faster, if not quite the on the same level of the speedsters. Still, he seemed to take my presence as a personal insult.

Which was good, because I had nothing to throw, and I was reasonably sure he could run out the clock, literally speaking. Each time he came close, we traded another flurry of blows. With his power, and my healing ability, I'm not sure either of us were making any progress.

I had to change the game. I had the germ of an idea, and I backed up. I backed up into a corner. The next time he came at me to flurry, I ducked under the blows, and grabbed at his legs. Instead of being able to run past me, he had begun to turn and run at the same time. With his legs tangled, I took a foot to the face, and it hurt, but he came crashing to the ground. Apparently, it was true. The bigger were, the harder they fell. The fall stunned him, just long enough for me to dart towards his head to grab the necklace.

The gemstones emanated the same weird, foul energy as the first pair. It wanted in my being. It wanted to overwhelm me. I couldn't let it. I thrust the two stones in a pocket and went after the Cheetah. Without the energy to draw on, it also eventually succumbed to an overly aggressive tiger lady.

The trip back was simpler. I unlocked a gate that led me almost right back to the center area. Ms. Kyle closed the way into the area the Cheetahs had been in. My muscles were sore. I hadn't been neglecting myself, I promise you that. But this was a high intensity workout I had not been properly prepared for. We'd replaced the second yellow gemstones, and again, there was a drop in the energy. It began to build again immediately.

"Two down, two left," Selena told me. "When you're ready."

"Tigers and Cheetahs," I told her tiredly. "What could possibly be next?"

"I've seen a few panthers," she replied. "But I'd guess lions."  
I just HAD to ask. Lions were pack animals. You never fought just one lion.

I rested for at least ten minutes before heading through door number three. There was a locked gate to one side. My quarry, probably another ginormous cat, had left marks in the floor that way. I'd have to hope I could find a way around.

My best bet was another damn hole in the floor. At least this one didn't lead me into steam filled tunnels.

My first encounter in the tunnel was a couple of lionesses. It made sense. Lionesses were the hunters. This time, I did **not** successfully pull one at a time. I had to deal with a pair. It wasn't that hard, or at least it wouldn't have been had I not been starting to get tired.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, what happened next would completely make me forget my exhaustion. I saw a lion in the corner. I instinctively jumped in after him, I saw initially nothing else around him. Being a single target, a quick combo to the abdomen put him down for the count.

Then I saw the cub, and I thought I was going to be sick. He looked up at me, down at the lion I'd just clobbered. Then up at me again. The he walked over an embraced my leg.

What in the name of... I had two competing theories. That these were humans taken over by a cat spirit. If that was true, this was bad. It meant that these spirits had taken over _children_. The other theory was that these were actual humanoids, sealed somehow in the magic of the statues.

That was conceivably worse.

I crouched, and tried to communicate with him. Using English, hand signals, anything I could think of. I wanted him, or perhaps her, to hide. It wouldn't lead my side, and when I got ambushed by another pair of lionesses, it helped me take them down. I took more than a few extra hits trying to keep it from coming to harm.

Maybe both theories were true.

When I saw the second one, I forgot my exhaustion, I forgot my fear. I was angry, probably too angry. I was going to find every cub in this basement area.

And I was not going to leave any of them behind.


End file.
